


and too many stairs

by ebonynightwriter



Series: Shallura Week 2018 [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Universe, F/M, Humor, Hurt / Comfort, Looooots of stairs, One-Shot, Season/Series 04, Shallura Week 2018, Teasing, injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-18
Updated: 2018-09-18
Packaged: 2019-07-14 02:45:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16031354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ebonynightwriter/pseuds/ebonynightwriter
Summary: Heart to heart on a stairwell. Some teasing involved.





	and too many stairs

**Author's Note:**

> **A/N:** So far my pieces for this week have been so _serious_ and _angsty_. Time to mix in a tiny-bit of humor! :) Don’t really have a timeline set for when this takes place... maybe sometime in season 4?
> 
> -.-
> 
> **[shallura week (2018) // day 3](http://ebonynightwriter.tumblr.com/tagged/mine:%20shallura%20week%202018)** · lead / follow
> 
> -.-

_This place is endless._

Blood pounding in her ears, it’s the single thought going through her mind as she heads down her twelfth flight of stairs. She throws the door open at its base, exhaling as another maze of halls waits before her. It was bad enough this place had fifty stories, but couldn’t they have kept the stairwells in the same place?

Regardless, she pushes forward, her left hand pressed into her side as she heads down the right most path, hoping it would lead her to the next flight of stairs. There’s a thin trail of fluid behind her that she would normally worry about, but she knows not to expect any company from above. Most of the guards on the upper levels were automated, which were shutdown once she put Pidge’s hack into the system. For now, she’d be fine.

Which was good news for her foot.

It wasn’t completely broken, per say, but it had taken a twist during a fall as she had her way to the security system; a fall that had also lost her helmet. Pressure had been building slowly within her armored boot as she made the descent, becoming more and more tense with each set of steps. It would become harder, perhaps impossible, for her to walk eventually — she hopes she could make it to the others by that time.

Just thirty-eight more levels to go.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

Allura breathes, taking a rest on the door of the twenty-fifth stairwell — or what she hoped was the twenty-fifth. Her foot had expanded in her armor, a thick pulse beating up her calf. Running the rest of the way was out of the question, she would have to take this slow. Going to the left side of the stairwell, she leans into the railing with half her arm, elbow holding her up. She hobbles down half the stairs before having to stop. Air hissing through her teeth, her right hand pinches the cut on her side. She closes her eyes as the pain fades away. She hadn’t run into any guards yet, maybe she could take a longer break...

The sound of the door opening below erases the thought from her mind. Heart racing, she forms her bayard to her hand as the sound of feet echo in the stairwell. At her best luck it would only be two guards — at her worse, a squadron.

She _really_ hoped it was the former.

The steps grow closer, and she tries to get as close to the top of the flight as she can. Distance would be her asset in the closed-space they were in. If she could send the bayard out as they made it to the bottom of the set and trip them up as it returned, then she may have a chance for an escape...

Her hand raises as their head appears on the other side of the stairs, and to her surprise it is Shiro who rounds the rail’s bend, looking as shocked as she is. She relaxes her hand, the panic lifting fading from her chest.

He runs up the rest of the way.

“Are you alright?” he asks, eyes going instantly to the cut on her side. She sighs heavily, hair falling in front of her eyes.

“It’s not that bad,” she says, holding firm against the rail. “It’s my foot that’s worse.”

Shiro kneels, taking the base of her heel in his hand. Holding it with care, Shiro examines the appendage with the medical scanner at his wrist.

“It looks like it’s fractured,” he says, clearing the display. “How long has it been like this?”

“The last ten floors,” she says. “I lost my helmet on the way up.”

He goes to her side.

“We’ve been worried,” he says, looping her arm over his back. “Lance almost came up to get you.”

She grunts as they begin the descent, his hand pressed against her side.

“Did he and Hunk finish setting the bombs?”

“Almost,” Shiro replies. “They didn’t want to finish until we knew where you were.”

She smiles, head leaning forward as the reach the base of the stairs. There’s some manner of difficulty as Shiro opens the door, but they make it through.

“You know,” Shiro says, leading her down the hall. “With that cut on your side, this reminds me of when we first went to Zarkon’s HQ...”

“You were the one injured that time,” she replies. “Are you trying to distract me?”

“Maybe,” he says, fingers tightening around her skin. “You look like you might pass out if I don’t.”

A small laugh comes from her throat.

“I’ll try to stay awake,” she says. “If I can.”

“It’d be nice if you do,” Shiro says. “I’d hate to have to carry you.”

She raises a brow.

“Now your _insulting_ me?”

He can’t hide his grin.

“Only if it keeps you on your good foot.”

Allura sighs, hanging her head.

“Fine,” she says. “Lead the way.”

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

They stop at the twelfth floor.

“There are way too many stairs in this place,” Shiro says, letting her down. He bends over, stretching as she eases herself down on the top step.

“Maybe that’s why we haven’t seen any guards,” she says, laying her legs atop the steps. “You’d think they’d install an elevator by now.”

“Or maybe a zip-line,” he grins.

She smiles at that. It’s almost enough to keep her mind from the pain. She tilts her head back, staring at the tall dark of the ceiling. The heat in the air floats around her face...

“This is the second time you’ve come for me.”

He pauses, brow pinched together.

“What do you mean?” he asks, standing. She draws her good leg in, holding it close to her chest.

“You came after I was captured,” she says. “And maybe a few more times before that.”

“Of course,” he says, sitting beside her. “We couldn’t just leave you there.”

She looks down the stairs.

“I didn’t know what was happening when you arrived back then,” she says. “I could only hear the sounds. But I knew, somehow, that you had come, and I was so scared that I’d never see you and the paladins and Coran again.”

Resting her chin upon her knee, she smiles softly.

“It’s not the same but... with all these stairs, winding around and around, I almost felt the same,” she says. “I was worried I wouldn’t make it back in time. That something would happen.”

Silent, he leans forward.

“We kind of have this... saying, on Earth,” he says. “Usually goes something like, _‘you lead, I follow’_."

His arms hang off his legs as the words fade above them. 

"It's safe to say that’s how all of us feel..." he says, glancing at her. "So wherever you go, we’ll be right behind.”

She turns to him, her smile calm.

“I know—”

_BOOM!_

Shiro gets to his feet.

“Looks like that’s our sign to get going!” he says.

He pulls her arm around him—

“Wait!” 

He freezes.

“What?”

“You said you’d be behind me wherever I go,” she says. “But I don’t think you can do that this time.”

His eyes widen.

“Wait, what? Why?”

She winces.

“Because I cannot move my leg anymore,” she says. “Looks like you'll have to carry me.”

His mouth twitches for a moment. Then, he laughs.

“Alright,” he says, giving her his hand. “Let’s go.”


End file.
